Cristina Cabrera

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Cristina Cabrera is the social media editor at TPM based in New York. Previously, she worked for Vocativ and interned at USA Today and New York 1 News. She received her B.A at NYU. Follow her on Twitter @crismcabrera

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Cristina

A Republican House candidate running in California’s 44th District filmed herself on Tuesday following a trans woman into a public bathroom and demanding to know why she was there.

Jazmina Saavedra, a “Latinos for Trump” spokeswoman who’s looking to unseat Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-CA), streamed the incident via Facebook Live while at a Denny’s.

“I’m trying to use the ladies’ room right now,” Saavedra told viewers as she entered the bathroom. “And there is a man here saying that he’s a lady.”

She then pointed the camera at the cubicle and asked, “Why are you using the ladies’ bathroom?”

“Okay first off, you’re harassing me,” the woman responded. “I’m just using the restroom.”

“No, you’re invading my privacy because I’m a woman and I deserve to use the ladies’ room,” Saavedra said.

The woman asked incredulously, “I’m in the toilet, how am I invading your privacy?”

Saavedra left the bathroom and waited for the woman to come out, saying “I want everyone to see this.”

Throughout the seven-minute video, she repeatedly called the woman a “stupid guy” while ranting about “sick politicians” in California who believe in allowing people to use restrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

On Friday, Rep. Barragán slammed Saavedra’s actions. “Everyone has the right to their own identity, and the right not to be discriminated against for who they are,” she tweeted.

I was appalled by the treatment that this woman received for simply trying to use the restroom. Everyone has the right to their own identity, and the right not to be discriminated against for who they are. https://t.co/9IincnpFWy

A man in a ladies room saying He is a woman.( Obama legacy)As your next Congress woman I will fight to get our right to have a ladies room just for us back . Vote for Jazmina for U.S. Congress 44 District. California June 5thGuys I need you donate to our campaignWww.voteforjaz.com

Hundreds of demonstrators broke into the Gaza side of a cargo crossing with Israel, damaging pipelines that carry fuel and gas into Gaza, the Israeli military said. Photos on social media showed large flames near the Kerem Shalom crossing, near where the borders of Gaza, Israel and Egypt converge.

Palestinian officials said protesters smashed some equipment near the crossing but were unaware of any damage to pipelines. The Israeli military called the incident a “cynical act of terror” that harms Gaza civilians.

Elsewhere, witnesses said small Israeli drones faced off against flaming kites that were flown by Palestinians over the border fence in recent weeks to set ablaze dry wheat fields on the Israeli side. The witnesses said two kites with burning rags were brought down by the drones, while two other drones crashed after being hit by stones.

The protests are part of a weekly campaign organized by Gaza’s Hamas rulers. The marches each Friday are aimed, in part, at breaking a decade-old blockade of the territory that imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamic militant group took control there in 2007.

The Islamic militant group Hamas has said the protests would culminate in a mass march on May 15, with some officials suggesting a possible border breach at the time and others saying the protests might continue beyond that date.

Israel has warned that it will prevent such a breach at any cost.

May 15 is the day Palestinians commemorate their mass uprooting in the 1948 war over Israel’s creation. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from homes in what is now Israel. Two-thirds of Gaza’s residents are descendants of refugees.

Despite the risks faced by the protesters near the border, turnout has been sustained by the widespread desperation of blockade-linked hardships of life in Gaza. Virtually all of the territory’s 2 million people are barred from travel, about two-thirds of young people are unemployed and power is on only a few hours a day.

On Friday, 229 protesters were hospitalized, including 70 with bullet wounds, the Gaza Health Ministry said. Three of the wounded were in serious condition.

Since late March, 40 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,700 wounded by Israeli army fire. Friday marked the first weekly protest in which no Palestinian were reported killed by sundown.

Yehiyeh Amarin, 18, said he and his friends will keep going to the border until the blockade has been lifted.

“If no solution happens by May 15, we will continue the protests or we die,” he said, as another protester behind him brandished a yellow wire cutter. “We will cut through the fence.”

He said he and his friends call themselves the “tires unit,” spending their weekdays collecting tires for the weekly demonstrations. “We want a dignified life and a return to our lands,” said Amarin, as he and others rolled tires toward the fence to set them ablaze.

The mounting casualty toll has led to growing criticism of Israel. Rights groups say Israeli open-fire regulations are unlawful because they permit troops to use potentially lethal force against unarmed protesters. Israel’s Supreme Court is currently weighing a petition by six rights groups to restrict or ban the use of live fire on the border.

The European Union and the United Nations have also criticized the use of lethal force.

Israel says it is defending its sovereign border, including nearby communities, and that soldiers only target instigators. It accuses Hamas, sworn to Israel’s destruction, of trying to carry out attacks under the guise of the mass protests. It has said that some of those protesting at the border in recent weeks tried to damage the border fence or plant explosives along it.

Hamas says the protests are aimed at breaking the border blockade and pressing for the “right of return” of displaced Palestinians and their descendants.

Republicans in the Colorado state legislature have introduced a bill that could land teachers who go on strike in jail.

Local station Denver7 News reported on Sunday that the Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Bob Gardner (R) and state Rep. Paul Lundeen (R), would allow school districts to seek an injunction in the event of a strike. Any teacher who refuses to comply would be considered in “contempt of court” and could face up to six months in jail.

The bill would also allow school districts to fire those teachers without a proper hearing.

Colorado teachers plan to walk out this Thursday and Friday to demand more school funding and higher wages. Their protest follows a nationwide trend of teacher strikes in Kentucky, Oklahoma and West Virginia. Last week, teachers in Arizona voted to strike on April 26.

The protesting teachers decry below-average wages, and an overwhelming majority of Americans agree with them: A new AP poll found that 78 percent of Americans believe public school teachers are underpaid.

Denver7 noted that average salaries for Colorado teachers rank 46th in the nation, and that they spend approximately $656 out of pocket for school supplies every year.

Hedge-fund billionaire Seth Klarman, a major Republican donor, is using the money he got under President Donald Trump’s tax cut to bankroll Democrats.

“I received a tax cut I neither need nor want,” Klarman, CEO of the Baupost Group hedge fund, told the Boston Globe in an article published Sunday. “I’m choosing to invest it to fight the administration’s flawed policies and to elect Democrats to the Senate and House of Representatives.”

Klarman said that Republicans “have failed to hold the President accountable and have abandoned their historic beliefs and values,” and that Democrats need to win one or both chambers of Congress in the midterms “for the good of the country.”

The Globe noted Klarman’s long-standing opposition to Trump. “Tragically, Donald Trump has displayed few of the character traits required in a US president, and no aptitude for or interest in developing them,” Klarman said. He donated $5,400 to Hillary Clinton’s campaign once Trump became the GOP’s candidate for the general election.

Klarman has already given about $222,000 to 78 Democrats running for Congress since the 2016 election, according to the Globe.

United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley told the UN Security Council on Saturday that the U.S. plans to keep pressure on Syria to prevent further use of chemical weapons.

Haley said she had spoken to President Donald Trump, who told her: “If the Syrian regime uses this poisonous gas again, the United States is locked and loaded.”

“When our President draws a red line, our President enforces a red line,” said Haley.

The ambassador’s remarks came during an emergency UN Security Council meeting held after the U.S. led a series of airstrikes against Syria on Friday. Trump had ordered the strikes in response to the Syrian regime’s alleged chemical attacks on a rebel-controlled town last weekend.

U.S. military leaders said that the strikes, coordinated with France and the U.K., targeted the Syria’s chemical weapon facilities.

Trump posted a Bush-esque “Mission Accomplished!” tweet on Saturday morning, though there has been no indication so far that the strikes have effectively prevented Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from using chemical weapons.

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin (R) claimed on Friday that children were “sexually assaulted” or “introduced to drugs for the first time” because they were “left alone at home” during the teacher rally that day.

“I guarantee you somewhere in Kentucky a child was sexually assaulted that was left at home because there was nobody there to watch them,” Bevin told reporters in a video captured by WDRB reporter Marcus Green. “I guarantee you somewhere today a child was physically harmed, or ingested poison, because they were home alone. Because a single parent didn’t have money to take care of them.”

The GOP governor said he was “offended” that people “so cavalierly disregarded what’s truly best for our children.”

“As surely as we’re having this conversation, children were harmed, some physically, some sexually, some were introduced to drugs for the first time, because they were vulnerable and left alone,” Bevin said.

Amid teachers’ protests statewide to increase school funding, Bevin had vetoed what he called a “sugary” measure aimed to boost funding with a $480 million tax increase. Kentucky House lawmakers proceeded to override the governor’s veto on Friday, securing a victory for the teachers rallying outside the state capital.

Watch the video below:

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin on the teacher rallies today. “I guarantee you somewhere in Kentucky today a child was sexually assaulted that was left at home because there was nobody there to watch them.” pic.twitter.com/Q4PpzFsTt2

Michael Avenatti, the lawyer of adult film actress Stormy Daniels, said on Friday that it’s “very possible” Daniels will appear at Michael Cohen’s Monday hearing, according to the Associated Press.

Avenatti also tweeted: “I checked and the weather forecast for Mon looks very Stormy.”

Cohen, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, was raided by the FBI on Monday in pursuit of records on Cohen’s $130,000 hush payment to Daniels, who allegedly had an affair with Trump in 2006. Investigators sought emails and other documents on the exchange, which took place shortly before the 2016 election and could thus possibly be considered a campaign finance law violation.

After the raids, Cohen’s lawyers asked on Friday for a chance to look over the seized evidence before allowing prosecutors to do so. The lawyers argued that the raids affected other Cohen’s clients and were a violation of attorney-client privilege.

Federal prosecutors then revealed that Cohen had been under investigation for alleged criminal behavior for months, largely in connection to “his personal business dealings.”

A judge ordered Cohen to appear in person at a hearing set for Monday.

In a following tweet, Trump said he was “so proud of our great Military.”

The U.S. and its allies coordinated three airstrikes targeting the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons facilities in response to the regime’s alleged chemical attacks in the rebel-occupied town of Douma earlier this month.

Russian president Vladimir Putin, a key Syria ally, condemned the strikes as an “act of aggression against a sovereign state that is on the frontline of the fight against terrorism.” Russia had previously threatened to shoot down any American missiles aimed at Syria.

#Putin: The current escalation around #Syria🇸🇾 is destructive for the entire system of international relations. History will set things right, and Washington🇺🇸 already bears the heavy responsibility for the bloody outrage in Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya. pic.twitter.com/PckbmFC3y6

The Atlantic has fired conservative columnist Kevin Williamson, who tweeted that women who have abortions should be hanged.

“Late yesterday afternoon, information came to our attention that has caused us to reconsider this relationship,” Atlantic editor-in-chief Goldberg wrote in a memo to employees on Thursday. “Specifically, the subject of one of Kevin’s most controversial tweets was also a centerpiece of a podcast discussion in which Kevin explained his views on the subject of the death penalty and abortion.”

He added: “The language he used in this podcast—and in my conversations with him in recent days—made it clear that the original tweet did, in fact, represent his carefully considered views.”

Goldberg had previously responded to the backlash over Williams’ hiring by defending his decision, saying that “I don’t think that taking a person’s worst tweets, or assertions, in isolation is the best journalistic practice.”

On Wednesday, MediaMatters resurfaced a National Review podcast from 2014 in which Williamson said he “would totally go with treating [abortion] like any other crime, up to and including hanging,” and repeated the sentiment several times throughout.

The Atlantic provided TPM with Goldberg’s full letter below:

Dear All,

Last week, I wrote you about our decision to hire Kevin Williamson. In that note, I mentioned my belief that Kevin would represent an important addition to our roster of Ideas columnists, and I addressed the controversy surrounding some of his past tweeting and writing. I expressed my belief that no one’s life work should be judged by an intemperate tweet, and that such an episode should not necessarily stop someone from having a fruitful career at The Atlantic.

Late yesterday afternoon, information came to our attention that has caused us to reconsider this relationship. Specifically, the subject of one of Kevin’s most controversial tweets was also a centerpiece of a podcast discussion in which Kevin explained his views on the subject of the death penalty and abortion. The language he used in this podcast—and in my conversations with him in recent days—made it clear that the original tweet did, in fact, represent his carefully considered views. The tweet was not merely an impulsive, decontextualized, heat-of-the-moment post, as Kevin had explained it. Furthermore, the language used in the podcast was callous and violent. This runs contrary to The Atlantic’s tradition of respectful, well-reasoned debate, and to the values of our workplace.

Kevin is a gifted writer, and he has been nothing but professional in all of our interactions. But I have come to the conclusion that The Atlantic is not the best fit for his talents, and so we are parting ways.

We remain committed to grappling with complex moral issues in our journalism. Some of our colleagues are pro-life, and some are pro-choice; we have pro-death-penalty and anti-death-penalty writers; we have liberals and conservatives. We obviously understood that Kevin himself is pro-life when we asked him to write for us. This is not about Kevin’s views on abortion.

We are striving here to be a big-tent journalism organization at a time of national fracturing. We will continue to build a newsroom that is, as The Atlantic’s founding manifesto states, “of no party or clique.” We are also an organization that values a spirit of generosity and collegiality. We must strive to uphold that standard as well.

Teachers statewide have been on strike and protesting in front of the Capitol since Monday, forcing hundreds of schools to close for three days in a row. Pointing to shabby education materials and Oklahoma’s ranking as 49th in teacher pay, they demand higher wages and more school funding.

Last week, Oklahoma’s GOP-controlled legislature passed a bill that would increase the average teacher salary by about $6,000 and bring an extra $50 million for school funding, falling far short of the $200 million the teachers were asking for.